The Newsroom - America is not the greatest country in the world anymore...(Restricted language)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Posted in threads on US costs and institutions as a famous fictional rebuttal to American exceptionalism.
What it is
The opening scene of HBO's The Newsroom, in which anchor Will McAvoy answers a student's question about why America is the greatest country. He delivers a blunt speech arguing it no longer is.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2018 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends manarth · 2026-07 · on “Why American ambulance rides are so expensive”
It's from a fictional drama (The Newsroom) but this a great riposte to "freedom in the US". You're going to say that we're the only ones in the world that has freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. [this video]
Cites richardthered · 2018-01 · on “Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on Health Care”
As measured .. how? I understand liking your country. I'm an American, too. I like my country, a lot. But, I think that the phrase "we are the best in the world" gets thrown around a lot as a meaningless platitude. It gets used more as a "my team is the Yankees"-style of statement. e.g. expressing your preference/allegiance, rather than meaning what it actually says, which is that the US is the 'best' in the world. To be the 'best' at something, you need to define how you're measuring that. Healthiest? Happiest? Longest life span? Because when you look at actual metrics for these types of things, across multiple countries, the US does not rate at the top. Have you seen this clip of Jeff Dani
Cites mthoms · 2020-11 · on “Tunnels in the US cost more than anywhere else”
No, it's you who are delusional. The U.S. ranks 45th in press freedoms. There are 25 European countries who rank better. Heck, there are even 5 African countries who rank higher. [LINK] [LINK] This infamous clip from The Newsroom might shed more light on how the U.S. is actually doing in comparison to other democratic countries (all statistics quoted are easily verified if you want to look into it) [this video]
Cites Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe · 2026-07 · on “OpenAI and Anthropic unite against open-weight AI risks to their bottom line”
Reminds me of the speech "America is not the greatest country in the world" from the show Newsroom: [this video] It was made 14 years ago and I don't think the US improved on any of those statistics.